Sunday, 16 April 2017

Between The Lines

I vaguely remember the days when I owned every Revelation release, and ordered everything they put out immediately. That kinda came to an end last year, and since then I've just lost interest a little. I think it's just a money thing. The exchange rate, combined with the sheer number of represses they were knocking out, and how far behind I was... well, it meant I would have had to drop literally hundreds of dollars to catch up. And I wasn't overly excited about doing that. So I sit here seriously behind, on both represses and new releases.

One release I certainly was excited for was the debut 7" from SEARCH, a NJ supergroup of sorts, featuring Tim McMahon on vocals with a band comprised of members of loads of other bands (Hands Tied, Floorpunch, Turning Point). However, I didn't order it immediately for various reasons. And then all of a sudden there was an announcement that the limited color (clear) was sold out. Oops! So I jumped on the computer box and managed to find somewhere still selling it. Bang. Done.

I do really like the layout on this one. The artwork and the colour scheme are pretty much everything I am looking for in a record. And the music is also pretty much everything I could want from a straight edge 7" in 2017 too. Pretty much a perfect record, and I'm glad that these guys are still active and being creative.

The irony of the situation is that I jumped on ordering the clear vinyl version, but didn't bother to also pick up a blue one. I'm not sure why I did this. I think it was not wanting to spend an extra few dollars, combined with the fact that there were something like 700 copies made, which I figured would hang around for a while longer. In a cruel twist of fate, however, the blue is now sold out and I didn't manage to get one.

Well, as quickly as fate frowned on me, the postman came along with a package that really cheered me up and made up for it. Some kind soul had been to the show that served as the release show for this 7" and picked up a copy for me. To say I was stoked would be an understatement.

As you can see, the release show sleeve is the same as the regular sleeve, but with all blue changed to red. And witht he addition of a small box in the bottom right corner which contains a number. The only thing that could have been better is that this could have contained a red vinyl record instead of blue. Don't ya think?

Another nice touch is that the inside of the sleeve has been stamped with the date of the show:

And there's an additional insert, being a flyer for the show that this was sold at:

This whole package looks totally great, and I count myself super lucky to have one. But just in case I was getting complacent and feeling 'up to date', Rev went ahead and pressed this record on green vinyl too. And then the band made up another limited sleeve for the Dave Franklin tribute show. So even having these two copies, I'm still more 'behind' than I am 'ahead' with this record, with there being 3 versions I don't own. I guess that's why this thing is called The Endless Quest...